The
Giants remain $3,308,682 under the salary cap, as per the Leagues' Top 51 Cap Report, since my previous post
last Saturday. We are now in a quiet phase of the off-season with respect to
team activities. Minicamp and OTAs ceased last week for the former, and the
week before that for the latter. While there aren't anymore team activities,
there is still work to be done before the beginning of training camp on July
26th, as indicated in my previous post.
Thursday, June 20, 2013
Giants front office's to-do list before the start of training camp on July 26th
The following pieces of business--contractual in nature--are on the Giants front office's to-do list:
- The Giants will also need to sign 1st round pick Justin Pugh, OT out of Syracuse.
- The Giants will need to sign 4th round pick, QB Ryan Nassib, also out of of Syracuse.
- If they're going to reach terms with Victor Cruz's agent, Tom Condon (also Eli Manning's and Tom Coughlin's agent) on a new contract for his client Cruz, it'll most likely have to get done before the start of training camp on July 26th.
- Cap restructures/extensions.
These 3 contractual items will have an impact on the Giants camp. Pugh's contract will lower the Giants' cap number by slightly less than a million bucks, as I've written about before many times on this blog, both during the Top 51 phase of the salary cap and the after it ceases at midnight EST on September 5th. Nassib's contract though won't count against the salary cap until the Top 51 rule ends since he's guaranteed a spot on the team barring an act of God. The cap numbers for each are listed here, from a post I made 16 days ago:
Cruz's cap number right now is $2,879,000. This will probably change if the Giants and Cruz agree on a new deal for him going forward. How much it changes in 2013 if an agreement is reached by both parties is the key question though since the signings of Nassib and Pugh are looked at as being inevitable. Cap numbers are at their lowest at the beginning of new contracts (see Will Beatty's contract numbers courtesy of overthecap.com).
It was broken down in this article by Jenny Vrentas a few months back when it went down.
The reason I bring up Beatty's contract is because it is a good example of a cap number being low at the start of a new deal for a young player beginning his second contract coming off of his rookie deal, something which Cruz will be doing if an agreement is reached. If an agreement is reached, I suspect that Cruz's 2013 cap number wouldn't increase a great deal over it's present number listed above. My guess, based on Beatty's situation, would be that Cruz's cap number wouldn't increase any more than 1 to 2 million dollars, with his cap impact being felt in 2014 and on. This will then lead to more cap room needing to be created before the start of the regular season, when the Top 51 rule ceases.
Cap restructures or extensions won't be needed until the Top 51 rule ends on Thursday, September 5th at midnight New York time, as posted above. Last year the Giants got more breathing room under the cap before the Top 51 rule stopped going into effect on September 4th, when Chris Snee helped the team out--and himself in the process--by agreeing to restructure his contract to give the Giants an extra $3 million dollars in cap space right before the Opener against the Cowboys. They may need to this same thing this year before the regular season begins, for roughly the same amount of money. The Giants made this move with Snee last year on the last day that the Top 51 rule was in effect: in other words, they did this at the last second before they would have begun the season over the cap.
Snee needs to be appreciated from this standpoint because he has helped the Giants many times in the past by agreeing to restructure his contract whenever they needed his help, as is evident by looking at his $11 million dollar cap number now--the second highest on the team after Eli Manning's, as well as the residual effect of his frequent restructurings in the past. The question is who will be willing and able to restructure his contract this year to help the Giants out before the Top 51 rule cessation deadline of September 5th this year? I'll cover this tomorrow.
P.S. Hint: the list is short. Just look at the cap numbers HERE.
Saturday, June 15, 2013
Giants' official salary cap number update & important dates to keep in mind regarding the Victor Cruz situation
As of today, the Giants are officially $3,308,682 under the salary cap. This information is as per the League's Official Top 51 Cap Report.
We'll see how the victor Cruz situation impacts this number going forward if he agrees to a new deal before or right around the start of training camp, which begins on July 26th. the Giants are off until that time, so there will be plenty of time for Cruz and his agent, Tom Condon (who is also Eli Manning's and Tom Coughlin's agent), to talk turkey with the Giants' front office.
If Cruz doesn't report to camp on time, he'll be subject to fines. This is because he is now officially under contract by the team, as a result of his signing his tender for $2,879,000. If Cruz isn't in camp by August 6th, then he will lose a year's worth of eligibility towards unrestricted free agency. This happened to Titans RB Chris Johnson in 2011, even though it didn't really affect him that much. Here's an article about the topic:
"After Tuesday, Training Camp Holdouts Lose Year Toward Free Agency" - by Joel Thorman @JoelThorman on Aug 9 2011, 10:52 am
The two dates to keep in mind for Giants fans going forward with respect to this situation are the following:
For what it's worth, Joel Corry feels that Victor Cruz will eventually cave in as per this twitter conversation between himself and Patricia Traina:
Odds are that the Giants are going to have to free up some money under the salary cap too, not necessarily for Cruz's new deal, but to give the team more breathing room under the salary cap for when the Top 51 Rule ceases. I addressed this issue a little over a month ago, back on May 10th in this post:
What happens when the Top 51 rule ceases?
I'll say this: I don't think the Giants are going to cave in when it comes to how they're going to go about their business with respect to the Cruz and Nicks situations. They'll set a price, as I wrote about yesterday, and then stick to it pretty closely. If reports are true about the Giants increasing their offer to $8 million while Cruz is looking for $9 million, then salary guarantees, as opposed to bonus money, as Joel Corry states above will be key.
Up until now, I was thinking more about incentives being central to the situation, but what Patricia and Joel are saying about salary guarantees really does make sense when you think about it, since those guarantees are now being used more often, as Joel states. Keep an eye on how this situation changes because I have a hunch--just my opinion--that it'll carry over to the mid to latter part of July.
We'll see how the victor Cruz situation impacts this number going forward if he agrees to a new deal before or right around the start of training camp, which begins on July 26th. the Giants are off until that time, so there will be plenty of time for Cruz and his agent, Tom Condon (who is also Eli Manning's and Tom Coughlin's agent), to talk turkey with the Giants' front office.
If Cruz doesn't report to camp on time, he'll be subject to fines. This is because he is now officially under contract by the team, as a result of his signing his tender for $2,879,000. If Cruz isn't in camp by August 6th, then he will lose a year's worth of eligibility towards unrestricted free agency. This happened to Titans RB Chris Johnson in 2011, even though it didn't really affect him that much. Here's an article about the topic:
"After Tuesday, Training Camp Holdouts Lose Year Toward Free Agency" - by Joel Thorman @JoelThorman on Aug 9 2011, 10:52 am
*****
The two dates to keep in mind for Giants fans going forward with respect to this situation are the following:
- July 26th
- The start of training camp.
- If he does not report on the first day, he'll be subject to $30,000 in daily fines.
- August 6th
- The date he can lose his eligibility for Unrestricted Free Agency in 2014 if he is not in training camp.
For what it's worth, Joel Corry feels that Victor Cruz will eventually cave in as per this twitter conversation between himself and Patricia Traina:
Odds are that the Giants are going to have to free up some money under the salary cap too, not necessarily for Cruz's new deal, but to give the team more breathing room under the salary cap for when the Top 51 Rule ceases. I addressed this issue a little over a month ago, back on May 10th in this post:
What happens when the Top 51 rule ceases?
I'll say this: I don't think the Giants are going to cave in when it comes to how they're going to go about their business with respect to the Cruz and Nicks situations. They'll set a price, as I wrote about yesterday, and then stick to it pretty closely. If reports are true about the Giants increasing their offer to $8 million while Cruz is looking for $9 million, then salary guarantees, as opposed to bonus money, as Joel Corry states above will be key.
Up until now, I was thinking more about incentives being central to the situation, but what Patricia and Joel are saying about salary guarantees really does make sense when you think about it, since those guarantees are now being used more often, as Joel states. Keep an eye on how this situation changes because I have a hunch--just my opinion--that it'll carry over to the mid to latter part of July.
Friday, June 14, 2013
The Giants were supposedly going to reduce the Cruz tender from $2,879,000 to $630,000
This is according to Aditi Kinhawbala's tweet a short time ago:
Source: https://twitter.com/AKinkhabwala
If this were to have taken place on Monday, then the Giants would have gained $2,249,000 in cap space ($2,879,000 - $630,000). If Cruz's tender amount were to be dropped to $630,000 on Monday, then the Giants' cap number would have jumped from being $3,308,682 to $5,557,682---a much healthier cap figure. Generally speaking, teams with cap figures above $5 million are in good enough shape to begin the regular season since that amount of cap space now corresponds to a good enough number to deal with regular season operational expenses.
Lots of people--including myself--didn't think the Giants would do this, so Cruz's decision to sign the tender today to protect himself in case the Giants did decide to go this route proved the be the correct move (assuming of course that this was going to happen, which we have no way of knowing for sure unless someone in the giants' front office admits to it--which they obviously won't). If the Giants were able to gain this extra cap space, it would have given the Giant a more realistic chance to go after the services of FA Fullback Vonta Leach. Reportedly, the Giants have already told Leach's agent to keep them in the loop regarding his client's situation. If they had this extra room next week, who knows what would have happened on this front.
Going forward, the Giants will have to deal with both of their starting WRs potentially becoming Unrestricted Free Agents after next season if they aren't extended before then. As long as Cruz shows up at the start of training camp on July 26th, he won't be subject to any fines, but if he doesn't then the game could get ugly then. The only reason Cruz wasn't fined for missing OTAs and mini-camp was because he wasn't under contract. Although he counted against the cap at $2.879 M the moment the Giants tendered him, the fact that he didn't sign it protected him from potentially being fined for missing OTAs and mini-camp. Stevie Brown and Andre Brown--the Giants' other two Restricted Free agents this offseason signed theirs after waiting a little but, but had much less leverage then Cruz since they're not considered players with big money potential and were facing stiffly increasing competition in training camp.
Any way you slice it, Cruz will be a Giant in 2013 unless he decides to sit out the upcoming season and forgo a year of fee agency eligibility by not being with the team in training camp 30 days prior to the beginning of the NFL regular season on Thursday, September 5th, something which he will most certainly not do. We'll probably see Cruz with the club by that August 6th Unrestricted free agency eligibility deadline for 2014 for that reason alone. After that though, things may get interesting. We'll wait and see what happens with this rumored Cruz extension, but one thing is sure: the Giants set a price limit on their players, and don't go beyond it, as indicated in this tweet by Ms. Kinkhabwala:
Source: https://twitter.com/AKinkhabwala
Victor Cruz is signing his RFA tender today
He's actually at the Giants' facility now according to various twitter reports. Signing his tender only means that Cruz protects himself from not receiving that first round Restricted Free Agent (RFA) tender salary amount of $2,879,000 should the Giants decide to use their 24 hour window on Monday, June 17th reduce it down to $630,000. Read this part of Joel Corry's recent article on Cruz below for further details:
Source: http://www.cbssports.com/nfl/blog/eye-on-football/22395262/agents-take-looking-at-whats-next-for-victor-cruz
By waiting to sign his tender now, Cruz also protected himself from being fined by the Giants at the team's completed mini-camp that ran from Tuesday, June 11th to yesterday. It's a smart business for him in that sense. What it opens him up to though is being fined in training camp, which is something he would want to avoid since he's not a big money player to begin with, and because of the Giants' track record of dealing with hold outs in that past. Just go ask Michael Strahan. Joel Corry writes about that too from his article already linked above. Here's what he said about that:
Hopefully, from both the Giants' and Cruz's perspectives these actions are leading up to an agreement for a new deal before training camp. Once camp starts, then things have a chance to begin to get ugly, as the Giants will be able to levy fines on Cruz at that point since he will be considered under contract, which he is not now. Once he signs his tender today (which he may already have as reported earlier), then things will get interesting. If press reports are truly accurate about the deal being on the "2-yard line" are true, then this will get done. USA Today's Mike Garafolo is saying that the Giants "aren't any closer" to a long-term deal, so take that for it's worth as well.
Source: http://www.cbssports.com/nfl/blog/eye-on-football/22395262/agents-take-looking-at-whats-next-for-victor-cruz
By waiting to sign his tender now, Cruz also protected himself from being fined by the Giants at the team's completed mini-camp that ran from Tuesday, June 11th to yesterday. It's a smart business for him in that sense. What it opens him up to though is being fined in training camp, which is something he would want to avoid since he's not a big money player to begin with, and because of the Giants' track record of dealing with hold outs in that past. Just go ask Michael Strahan. Joel Corry writes about that too from his article already linked above. Here's what he said about that:
*****
Hopefully, from both the Giants' and Cruz's perspectives these actions are leading up to an agreement for a new deal before training camp. Once camp starts, then things have a chance to begin to get ugly, as the Giants will be able to levy fines on Cruz at that point since he will be considered under contract, which he is not now. Once he signs his tender today (which he may already have as reported earlier), then things will get interesting. If press reports are truly accurate about the deal being on the "2-yard line" are true, then this will get done. USA Today's Mike Garafolo is saying that the Giants "aren't any closer" to a long-term deal, so take that for it's worth as well.
Thursday, June 13, 2013
The Giants reportedly spoke to recently released Pro Bowl FB Vonta Leach's agent last night
Check out this article on the situation by Dave Hutchinson in today's Star Leger:
Leach is entering his tenth year in the league, and will turn 32 near the beginning of November. If he signs a Minimum Salary Benefit (MSB) contract, he stands to make a veteran minimum of $840K in salary for players with 7 to 9 years worth of accrued seasons (Leach has 9).
Source: http://www.steelersdepot.com/2011/07/2011-2014-nfl-minimum-base-salaries/
In addition to that minimum base salary (paragraph 5 money), Leach would probably get a $65 K signing bonus, which is what the Giants have done with their 11 MSB players--the most in the league. He could potentially stand to make a salary of $905 K, with a $65 K bonus included, and only count $620 K against the salary cap. You wouldn't subtract that $620 K cap figure from a given team's cap though if he signs. You would subtract the difference between Leach's hypothetical $620 K cap number from that of the 51st ranked cap figure on the team, which in many cases is somewhere between $480 K and $555 K. If we take the low number, than the displacement differential would only be $140 K. Subtracting only $140 K from a team's cap number for a player like Leach is a no-brainer, particularly if there is a glaring need on the roster for a Fullback. There is no question that he should be able to find a job in the league under those circumstances.
His agent's job is to look for team's with openings on their rosters, whether through dearth of talent, lack of depth, or otherwise. It would also help if those teams have some cap room, so his agent could negotiate some extra dough for him. Odds are though that he'll probably wind up getting the MSB I mentioned above, unless he gets a team with salary cap room, like the Dolphins, to fork up some dough (he would reportedly prefer to return to Houston, but the money might not be right). Here are two good articles on the topic, one from Miami and the other from Houston:
http://www.miamiherald.com/2013/06/13/3448179/miami-dolphins-trying-to-lure.html
http://blog.chron.com/ultimatetexans/2013/06/vonta-leach-still-in-miami-agent-cites-mutual-interest-with-texans/
It'll be interesting to see what happens, but either way I'd consider it highly doubtful that he signs with the Giants, for two reasons:
1. Leach is NOT a stop gap type of FB; he's arguable the best blocking FB in all of football, hence there would be more of a demand for him, than that of the Tony Fiammettas and Evan Rodriguezs of the league.
2. Even if Leach winds up signing a MSB contract, he will want to go somewhere where he can showcase himself for 2014 when he re-enters the FA market. Leach can only do that if he is the undisputed starter on a team WITHOUT someone looking over his shoulder, ready to take his job from him. He can't do that on a team like the Giants where the starter is expected to return early in the season after missing a few weeks at the start.
Besides those two reasons, teams don't usually care more than 1 FB in today's NFL. I would have loved Leach on the Giants if Hynoski wasn't here, but that ship sailed already (they tried to sign Leach to an offer sheet before the 2007 season). My money is on either the Dolphins, or the Texans. Going back to the Ravens makes little to no sense for Leach, especially because Baltimore drafted his replacement this past April in the 4th round, in the person Kyle Juszczyk out of Harvard.
Leach is entering his tenth year in the league, and will turn 32 near the beginning of November. If he signs a Minimum Salary Benefit (MSB) contract, he stands to make a veteran minimum of $840K in salary for players with 7 to 9 years worth of accrued seasons (Leach has 9).
Source: http://www.steelersdepot.com/2011/07/2011-2014-nfl-minimum-base-salaries/
In addition to that minimum base salary (paragraph 5 money), Leach would probably get a $65 K signing bonus, which is what the Giants have done with their 11 MSB players--the most in the league. He could potentially stand to make a salary of $905 K, with a $65 K bonus included, and only count $620 K against the salary cap. You wouldn't subtract that $620 K cap figure from a given team's cap though if he signs. You would subtract the difference between Leach's hypothetical $620 K cap number from that of the 51st ranked cap figure on the team, which in many cases is somewhere between $480 K and $555 K. If we take the low number, than the displacement differential would only be $140 K. Subtracting only $140 K from a team's cap number for a player like Leach is a no-brainer, particularly if there is a glaring need on the roster for a Fullback. There is no question that he should be able to find a job in the league under those circumstances.
His agent's job is to look for team's with openings on their rosters, whether through dearth of talent, lack of depth, or otherwise. It would also help if those teams have some cap room, so his agent could negotiate some extra dough for him. Odds are though that he'll probably wind up getting the MSB I mentioned above, unless he gets a team with salary cap room, like the Dolphins, to fork up some dough (he would reportedly prefer to return to Houston, but the money might not be right). Here are two good articles on the topic, one from Miami and the other from Houston:
http://www.miamiherald.com/2013/06/13/3448179/miami-dolphins-trying-to-lure.html
http://blog.chron.com/ultimatetexans/2013/06/vonta-leach-still-in-miami-agent-cites-mutual-interest-with-texans/
It'll be interesting to see what happens, but either way I'd consider it highly doubtful that he signs with the Giants, for two reasons:
1. Leach is NOT a stop gap type of FB; he's arguable the best blocking FB in all of football, hence there would be more of a demand for him, than that of the Tony Fiammettas and Evan Rodriguezs of the league.
2. Even if Leach winds up signing a MSB contract, he will want to go somewhere where he can showcase himself for 2014 when he re-enters the FA market. Leach can only do that if he is the undisputed starter on a team WITHOUT someone looking over his shoulder, ready to take his job from him. He can't do that on a team like the Giants where the starter is expected to return early in the season after missing a few weeks at the start.
Besides those two reasons, teams don't usually care more than 1 FB in today's NFL. I would have loved Leach on the Giants if Hynoski wasn't here, but that ship sailed already (they tried to sign Leach to an offer sheet before the 2007 season). My money is on either the Dolphins, or the Texans. Going back to the Ravens makes little to no sense for Leach, especially because Baltimore drafted his replacement this past April in the 4th round, in the person Kyle Juszczyk out of Harvard.
Wednesday, June 12, 2013
Adjustment made to the Giants' Dead Money list
Thanks to some help from Jason Fitzgerald from overthecap.com, I figured out that the discrepancy in cap numbers over the last week or two on the NFL's Top 51 Cap Report was due to dead money added on to the cap from the release of RB Jeremy Wright.
The Giants signed Wright as an Undrafted Rookie Free Agent (UDFA) on May 10th, and waived him on May 31st, as per BigBlueInteractive.com, a favorite website of mine which I write Salary Cap Articles for under the handle of "Optimus-NY". Read about the list of transactions HERE.
Jason helped teach me how to decipher why the discrepancy was there as I indicated above. It turns out tat the Giants gave Wright a $5,000 signing bonus. The only other two UDFAs who the Giants signed this year after the draft who they gave signing bonuses too were as follows:
The Giants signed Wright as an Undrafted Rookie Free Agent (UDFA) on May 10th, and waived him on May 31st, as per BigBlueInteractive.com, a favorite website of mine which I write Salary Cap Articles for under the handle of "Optimus-NY". Read about the list of transactions HERE.
Jason helped teach me how to decipher why the discrepancy was there as I indicated above. It turns out tat the Giants gave Wright a $5,000 signing bonus. The only other two UDFAs who the Giants signed this year after the draft who they gave signing bonuses too were as follows:
- WR Marcus Davis out of Virginia Tech--who they cut during rookie camp between May 11th and May 13th after giving him a relatively whopping $15,000 (Davis was then signed by the Jets).
- The other is blocking TE Chase Clement out of LSU, who got a $2,500 and is still on the Giants 90-man roster.
NOTE: The dead money numbers I have compiled below are just educated guesses based on numbers I've seen from spotrac.com and overthecap.com, along with figures I specifically recall dating from when Osi Umenyiora had a Voidable year tacked on to the final year of his contract last Spring.
I have the Giants' dead money figures estimated as follows (including Wright's updated dead money figure):
I have the Giants' dead money figures estimated as follows (including Wright's updated dead money figure):
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